Download The Sun…the star in the solar system

The Sun…the star in the solar system
The Sun provides us with a chance to see a star up close
Question for SGU graduates (or anybody
else): what kind of star is the Sun?
Question for SGU graduates (or anybody
else): what kind of star is the Sun?
18 Scorpii…
The “solar twin”
One emphasizes (somewhat) different
aspects of the Sun in a solar system
astronomy class
Reign of Akhenaten and Nefertiti
(~1350 BCE)
Point to make: when observed in the light
of ultraviolet lines, the Sun is not a
constant, static object
Because the Sun is the type of star it
is…
• It produces the “right luminosity” for us
(3.85E26 Watts)
• This luminosity is believed to have been
stable for the last several billion years
• It shines at this luminosity long enough
for us to arrive on the scene and enjoy it
Let’s begin exploring the Sun as a solar
system object
What we see as the disk of the Sun is a layer in
its atmosphere called the photosphere
The Sun is a beautiful illustration of
Wien’s Law
The solar spectrum is a good match (although not
perfect) to a blackbody spectrum
Let’s take a closer look at the solar
photosphere…it isn’t as featureless as it seems
It is particularly interesting if you look in the light of
the hydrogen alpha line (656 nanometers)
Granules in
the Solar
Atmosphere
Granules are
convection cells;
the outer layer of
the Sun is
carrying heat by
“boiling”
The physics of convection is common in
nature as a way of moving heat from one
place to another
demo
The observation of convection means the
Sun gets hotter the deeper you go
Luminosity (or power output) of 3.85E26
Watts
Next topic: solar activity
The Sun doesn’t always look like it does today
Closeup of a sunspot
Sunspots are
regions of
strong
magnetics
fields (0.2 -0.4
Tesla)
Sunspots and their strong magnetic fields
are related to more mysterious aspects of
the Sun
Above the
photosphere are
more rarefied and
hotter parts of the
solar atmosphere
The Chromosphere-region above the
photosphere, and substantially hotter
The Solar Corona
What is it? How did it get that way?
The X-Ray Sun
The Temperature Profile in the Solar
Atmosphere
The process or processes responsible for
heating the solar corona almost certainly
involve the solar magnetic field
We just don’t know how
The hot, rarefield, magnetically-dominated
parts of the solar atmosphere show
continual activity and energy release
erupting solar prominence...April 21, 2010